WESTFIELD — How did the Hampshire Regional boys cross country team follow up its first ever Western Massachusetts Class B title in 2024 a year later?
With another one.
The Raiders ran to their second sectional championship in as many years after earning a meet-best 62 points in the boys Class B meet at Stanley Park on Sunday afternoon.
Oscar Schiff and Owen Cubi scurried to top-10 finishes as Hampshire’s top pair. Schiff secured fifth place in 15 minutes, 59 seconds, while Cubi followed right behind with a sixth-place finish in 16:09 as the Raiders came in comfortably ahead of second-place Mount Greylock (78 points) to add another Class B championship plaque to the program’s ever-growing resume.
“We did it last year and we came back to do it again,” Schiff said. “We knew we had what it took, but we had to line up a good race and I think we did that.”
The theme of Hampshire runners finishing in pairs continued on with its third and fourth runners, Aidan Conklin and Augustus Niswonger, nabbing 16th and 17th place, respectfully. The duo grabbed the exact same finishing time with 16:57, while the Raiders’ fifth runner, Hobbes O’Sullivan took 21st place in 17:03.
Hampshire’s top-five runners were separated by 1:04 seconds, a formidable spread that proved to be too difficult for the opposition to overcome.
“That’s something that [coach Sue] Tracy and [coach Billy] Broadus emphasize a lot is that pack running,” Cubi said. “I think it’s one of our biggest strengths, it’s always been our spread, that’s been great.”
Sunday’s race came down to the fourth and fifth runners between the Raiders and Mounties. While Hampshire had two in before Mount Greylock, the Mounties swiftly brought in three before Conklin and Niswonger concluded, giving Mount Greylock great scoring potential.
However, the gap between the Mounties third and fourth runners was more than a minute, allowing the Raiders to quickly flip the scoring in its favor with Niswonger and O’Sullivan finishing before Mount Greylock’s fourth runner.
“We’ve definitely always had the depth that other teams may not have,” Schiff said. “That’s always just been our strong thing. We may not have the fastest of the fast runners, but we always have a lot of really good runners.”
As successful teams often do, once they get a taste of what it’s like being on top, it’s very difficult to knock them off the pedestal and that’s precisely how Hampshire prepared for Sunday’s showdown with numerous other talent-laden squads.
“After last year, we really felt like, we want to stay on top, especially in the Western Mass. section,” Cubi said. “I think that’s one we really emphasized over the summer is [to] come back and do it again and show that we’re not a one-time team, that we can come back and do it again and again.”
Frontier’s Evan Hedlund won the boys race in 15:33, while Luke Howard snagged third place in 15:56, leading the Red Hawks to fourth place overall.
Next up was Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, which took fifth place in the boys race. Grafton Tolopko’s 11th-place finish in 16:29 was the only other medalist in Hampshire County.
Belchertown (eighth place) had all five scorers come in less that 30 seconds apart, led by 43rd-place Miles McNamara who mustered a time of 17:55.
Easthampton (16th place) and Gateway (18th place) were paced by William Jourdain (18:55) and Jacob Maynard (17:44).
On the girls side, the Raiders registered a runner-up finish as the obtained 60 points altogether. Mount Greylock glided to the victory, earning a staggering 37 points with its first five snatching top-11 finishes.
Kathleen Barry topped out Hampshire’s runners with a second-place finish in 19:31. Ada Corner (eighth place, 20:11) and Brooke Hockenberry (14th place, 20:39) also earned medalist honors for the Raiders, while Charlotte Niswonger (18th place, 20:45) and Alexandra Henrichon (20th place, 20:53) rounded out their top five scorers.
PVCICS potted fifth place with Astrid Knyt (16th place, 20:44) and Ellery Maier (19th place, 20:46) leading the charge for the Dragons.
Frontier came in next in sixth as a team as Louise Flagollet (21st place, 20:57) and Liv Christensen (28th place, 21:22) were its top two runners.
Granby’s Grace Cooney also picked up a medal as the eighth-grader zipped to 15th place in 20:41.
Elsewhere in Hampshire County, Amelia Doge was Easthampton’s (eighth place) first finisher in 21:33, Ava Christie powered Gateway (11th place) with a time of 22:01, Serena Jones garnered a time of 22:38 for Belchertown (12th place) and Caprial Dibartolomeo rushed over the line in 21:53 as Hopkins’ leader.